California Highway Patrol Officer Convicted of First Degree Murder

Los Angeles, CA—This case should have been a winner but Oakland CA. lawyer Darrell Stallworth apparently was not up to the task.

Of course Stallworth had to deal with his client, Tomieka Jones Lemons Johnson’s statements made to police investigators when she killed her husband, Marcus Lavar Lemons with a single shot from a tiny Browning .25 automatic pistol.

There was a history of domestic violence and a disparity of force involved. Stallworth just did not overcome the prosecutor’s lame suggestion that Johnson was somehow a superior combatant because of police training.

The case was winnable because it took some two years for prosecutors to indict Johnson. Their case was week but the courtroom defense was even weaker.

The defense needed a solid investigation and qualified expert witnesses. It had neither.

Johnson is now facing the rest of her life in prison.